Repeating History
by m00nbrain
Summary: Crossover with Angel, River and Angel meet and nothing can ever be the same. Many short chapters. Feedback would mean so much to me.
1. Dreams

River blinked rapidly, trying to shield her eyes from the blinding whiteness. She rubbed her eyes before she could hold them open without pain. All she could see was a long white room. She pivoted seeing the same from all angles. The brunette quickly got the feeling she was no longer alone. 

"Whose there?" A deep uncertain tone asked. She wasn't sure what direction or how many times she had spun until she saw the tall darkly dressed man.

"Old, ancient." She muttered as she looked him over critically. She didn't see him as a threat but the room bothered her more. It reminded her too much of the Academy, sterile and empty.

"I wouldn't say ancient." He sounded mildly affronted as he stepped closer.

"There are no wings for you." She frowned deeply, unable to read much from him, just vague, maddening hints that lead her nowhere.

"Who are you?" He asked more uncertain, sensing something was off but he knew this room and he was here for a reason.

"The future, your future." She replied as if he was should have already known. He knew she was human, the heartbeat was a dead give away. Yet something was nagging at his senses.

"Does my future have a name?" He was trying to hide his irritation but the look she gave him was like a laser beam and he had the feeling nothing was about to escape her.

"River." She said quickly, shifting her gaze back to the seemingly endless room. "What is this place?"

"It's the White Room." She gave him a look of impatient annoyance at his obvious answer. "It's the conduit for the Senior Partners of Wolfram and Hart. It's not suppose to exist anymore, none of it is." He ended leaving them both confused.

"You say the room doesn't exist, yet here we are. Shouldn't our presence give the room purpose and make it exist?" She questioned, trying to shut out the nothingness around her.

"This room was a part of something that I helped destroy." He answered. Her gaze found his again but this time it was full of questions. River felt angry vengeful voices clawing at the inside of her brain. She jerked forward, her hands pushed at her temples trying to block out the pain.

"Reborn, reformed. Not wholly gone." She gritted out as images of demons, vampire and devils with blue hands crowded her head. She didn't understand what she was saying or where it came from.

"What?" Angel quickly wrapped his hand around her wrists and brought her face to look into his. Every time she spoke he wanted to ask an thousand more questions.

"Rebuilt, five hundred years to remake glory, five hundred years to wait for revenge." A fresh wave of agony washed over as he touched her. Images of heedless carnage, uncounted massacres and blood flowing like rivers at his feet.

"What did you do?' She asked horrified, wrenching herself from his grasp. He stood still unable to understand what she was asking, unable to understand her obvious pain. Half forgotten memories flitted through his head, Cordelia screaming in terror on the hotel floor as visions rampaged through her mind.

"What do you see?" he asked stunned at the implications. In her own mind the room was no longer pristine and white, it was dripping red with fresh blood. She could smell the coppery tang of death surrounding her as she tried to focus.

"Noses to the ground. Searching, hunting." She whispered, trying to keep herself from screaming.

"Who?" he demanded, fear leaking into his senses. He wanted to swoop her up into his arms like he had done with Cordy so many years ago but River was slipping farther away from him as she visibly became more tortured. Everything was losing its focus now and becoming dark as blue hands reached out for her, ready to rip her apart. She could feel herself ready to tear apart slowly and then it stopped as two cool strong hands gripped her shoulders.

"What is it?" He asked again, his brown eyes boring into her. Her body stiffened from the onslaught of new barbaric images and she couldn't hold back the ground shattering scream.

"The Wolf, The Ram, The Heart." She paused unable to keep herself conscious. But one last word slipped from her parted lips. "Alliance"


	2. The Start

River awoke with a strangled breath. She squinted as the bright haze faded from her view, allowing her room to bleed back into it's normal earthy colors. She inhaled deeply, pushing the wave of dizziness away before she sat up. Her mind was reeling from the dream, if that's what it really was. She wanted to deny that it was anything else but the man's touch felt too real and the room itself was something that felt almost more solid than Serenity did.

"Awake already, mei mei?" Simon's concerned voice asked from her opened doorway. She wanted to tell him to go away so she could review what she saw but Simon would only see it as lapse in her recovery and drug her. Sometimes she wondered why she let him, something told her could take him down easily. Sometimes she could feel something low in her stomach that urged her to try. She cleared those thoughts from her head, unable to understand why she thought them and the feelings they made her feel.

"Sleep is only needed in certain increments. A biological function you can't totally control and now I must quell another function." She said stiffly as she slide out from under the blanket. She gestured for him to close the door and leave but he ignored it giving her a worried look. "The girl has to urinate, Simon, she does not for you to hold her hand." She snapped, sliding the door shut on him. Simon stepped back immensely hurt by the sharp tone of his sister's voice. She'd never talked like that to him before and it set his one track mind straight to blaming the medication he was giving her. He planned on waiting until she came out but he saw Kaylee jogging up to him with an adorable smile plastered on her face.

"Capt' wants to see you." She chirped brightly. He felt a pang of guilt as he realized River's condition seemed a little less important when he saw the shiny young mechanic.

"I should wait for River and get her something to eat."

"Simon, she's big girl now. She'll be fine. Mal made it seem urgent and he's looks to be in no mood to be kept waitin'." She warned still as sweet as ever. "I'll stay and take her up for ya."

"I can't ask you to do that. She's my.." Simon began flustered and blushing like a school girl. Kaylee gave him a knowing smile and grabbed his shoulders to give him a gentle push towards the stairs.

"Ya don't have to ask, silly. Now go." She ordered him away. He gave her one last reluctant glance before walking off.

"You can come out now, River." Kaylee said finally when the last of the doctor's footsteps disappeared. The door slid open with River casting a worried look around the corner before stepping out.

"He's not going to like what he hears." River whispered sadly, already knowing that Inara was leaving like she planned, for better clientele farther into the Core than Mal could provide. River smiled sadly knowing that Inara's motives were to run where she knew Mal could never ask her to be something she couldn't, to give up the one thing she that made her who she was.

"It'll all work out eventually." River gave her an empty smile, envious of the optimism the woman she came to view as a sister always had. She hoped would Simon hold her when she heard the news.

"You're doing what? You can't." Simon shouted hotly. Mal's eye twitched again as he kept his own anger reigned in.

"You seem to be forgettin whose boat this is." Mal warned his tone deceptively mild but his face held a thunderstorm of bitterness.

"How can you put my sister in danger like this? You don't even know anything about the man." Simon asked, regretting it the instant Mal's face became darker almost like obsidian.

"What I know ain't none of your concern til I think it should be and yer sister ain't the only one I'm worried about, everyone on this ship was taken into consideration when _I. made. MY. decision_." He emphasized the last words as he stepped closer to the smaller man. "I don't expect you to like this but you will accept it. This conversation is over and that's final, dong ma?"

He watched as Simon's mouth thinned, he could see the pompous doc was far from accepting but he nodded slowly and stomped out furious.

Mal sighed frustrated at the turn of events. No one was going to be happy about this but he wore the tight pants of Captain around here and gorramit if they didn't respect that.

Mal watched as his downhearted crew walked into the mess. He and Inara had broken the news a few days go and since then everything was eerily silent even Jayne had kept to himself down in his bunk, doing things Mal didn't want to ever contemplate. Kaylee hadn't stopped crying into Simon's vests and he was afraid he'd find Serenity's engine rusted through if he went in there.

Inara was gone and he had news no one wanted to hear.

"Now I called ya'll in here for a good reason." He swallowed heavily before continuing, nervous at the varied reactions he knew he was about to receive. He briefly saw an eerie, knowing, ghost of a smile flit across River's face before she sat down.

He pushed himself off the table he was leaning on to turn to the broad man seated behind him. He repeated the words he had practiced over and over again.

"Gang, I'd like you to meet Angel O' Connor."


	3. Empty

Angel had been warned there would probably be hostility and the cold shoulder when he was introduced and the beginning was going to be a bit rough with the Companion leaving so abruptly. He expected a lot of things but a riot of wavy brown hair and piercing brown eyes that he thought he vividly imagine were not one of them.

"Hi." he said lamely, unable to figure a safe way to break the ice with seven people all staring at him like he was under a microscope.

"What's he gonna be doing in Nara's shuttle? Jayne asked crudely, clearly acting like the man didn't exist.

"Private investigations" Mal answered stiffly, hoping his merc wouldn't make this a big deal but all the hoping in the 'verse wouldn't change Jayne.

"Ain't stuff like that done better planet side?" He questioned skeptically, surveying the newcomer again with a look that told everyone Angel had come even shorter the second time.

"Only if you want to leave a paper trail." He finally answered for himself and he caught everyone's worried look. He congratulated himself on saying probably the exact wrong thing for his first sentence.

"Great hiding more fugitives." Jayne muttered his distrust evident and deep. Angel knew he already had to walk wisely around him.

"His record's clean, Jayne. His reasons for taking over the shuttle really ain't none of your gorram business. Same goes for the rest of you. I want no undue fussing about this. Decision's been made." Mal stated, his voice more flinty and edged than anyone could remember.

Everyone stood, ready to take their leave but a grease smudged female stepped forward extending her matching hand.

"I'm Kaylee, the mechanic. You won't find a ship in the sky as safe as Serenity," She said, pride evident in her cheerful eyes. Her grip was firm and little rough but Angel could still the softness in it.

"'Cept when something blows up and we end almost freezing to death." Jayne chimed in, killing the friendly mood.

"Wrong. Captain almost froze to death, _you _complained about incense." River pointed out smugly. Jayne returned with an acidic sneer before he stomped away without his introduction, didn't seem to make a difference to anyone.

"Don't mind him, he'll get used to ya." He didn't know if he like the thought of the big man getting used to him in any context of the word. "This here is Simon and his sister River." The mechanic continued cheerily, knowing Simon would have just made everything awkward and stiff. She figured the new guy had suffered enough.

"I'm the doctor. Don't hesitate to ask for anything." Simon blurted out, his lack of skill with small talk obvious. Angel nodded, not bothering to tell him it probably wasn't going to be an issue.

"No wings and broken halo," River said shyly, standing next to Kaylee. The vampire knew he couldn't keep the curiosity off of his face as he stared at the young girl and he didn't want to go raising any alarms right away. Simon cast a worried glance between the two when he got the feeling Angel understood her.

He felt like her dark eyes were looking right past his soul and into what he really was, if that was the case there would need to be an understanding between them. He got the creepy feeling nothing was going to get past her.

"Empty shuttles, empty souls. You'll fit in quite nicely." If that was her odd way of welcoming him, he knew nothing was about to get easier.

The rest of the crew introduced themselves properly, a little coldly but it was expected, he just hoped it wouldn't last.

He was a bit anxious about this particular place to do business. A steely captain, a genius mechanic, a warrior woman, a pilot extraordinaire, an overbearing doctor, the dangerous mercenary and one strange little girl was quite a crew, but the moment he recognized River he knew The Powers That Be were about to go screwing around with his life again. For good or bad he didn't know yet, but he knew the girl was the key and it put him right where he needed to be.


	4. Current

This piece was written in an attempt to see if I could writeplausiblecharacter voices and interaction, feedback would be heavenly.

* * *

"I don't trust him." Zoe said first breaking into a conversation no one had the nerve to start. Simon, Kaylee, Jayne and Wash all knew who she meant. "Something about him bugs me."

"You said the same thing about Wash and you _married_ him." Kaylee started irritated and in her element defending people. Zoe just stood there solid and impassive. "He ain't done nothing wrong to none of you."

"Yet." Simon chimed in from his post in the doorway, missing the gentle look of hurt that passed over Kaylee's face.

"He's bound to be stirring up problems." Jayne muttered over his protein soup.

"Doesn't mean you need go out of your way and help him, Jayne." Zoe warned, knowing how much the mercenary enjoyed hassling newcomers.

"I don't even like the caveman." He replied defensively.

"A cave man and an ape man, now that's the greatest love story ever told." Wash broke in as usual with no opinion. "No matter what anyone tells you I'm sure your children will be pretty."

"Keep it up, little man and your kids won't even have a fair shot at bein' pretty." Jayne growled menacingly. Zoe silenced them both with look that meant business or homicide, sometimes both depending on the way Mal did business.

"Now ya'll are just bein' bullies pickin' on the runt in the playground." Kaylee pointed out. "I don't know why you just can't be fair."

"It's not about fair, Kaylee. We just feel he needs to be watched." Zoe chided.

"And if the caveman had him in their playground, man were the astronauts screwed." Wash interjected, laughing at his own joke.

"Honestly I don't know why you defending him." Simon blurted out.

"I did the same thing for you, Simon Tam, when you didn't have a friend on this boat. It's only right to treat everyone the same." The mechanic fired at him, unbelieving at everyone's attitude.

"Something just ain't right about him. He's all silent and quiet like." Jayne explained sneering at the mixed looks he received.

"Capt' trusts him, that's all that should matter." She said a little injure no one had thought about Mal's opinion in all of this.

"Mal don't always trust the right people." Zoe added, knowing from experience how far Mal could go on simple blind trust.

"Than you should trust him. He knew what he was doing when he opened up 'Nara's shuttle. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to tend to Serenity or she won't know how to treat people either." She finished and left the table, refusing to listen anymore.

"Maybe she's right." Wash said, at last getting to his own thoughts.

"Honey, no one has that clean of a record." Zoe reasoned, blindsided by her husband's sudden outspoken empathy.

"Maybe we've all been out in the black too long because not everyone that steps on Serenity is a criminal. We had ourselves a shiny shepherd for awhile and a flawless Companion. Anyone remember them?" It was probably the longest sentence the pilot had said in a long time.

"Well than you can go keep him company while he's all holed up in that shuttle, doing lord knows what. I for one will the first one shootin' him when it comes to draggin' down this whole ship."

"No wait a gorram minute here, folks. I hope this isn't the mutiny it looks to be." Mal's deceptively level voice catching everyone off guard.

"Just airing out some issues, sir." The first mate gritted out, hoping he would just let it go.

"Issues on a boat tend to get aired out with the captain and that would be me so.." He trailed off, lending someone the ability else fill him in.

"Right," he started breaking the tense silence he expected. "I don't want to walk in on something like this again, dong ma?"

He waited until he had everyone's sullen nod.

"Serenity don't run herself, ya'll got jobs get 'em done."


End file.
